Salam al Maseeh

The first Palestinian above all others is Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Let be accursed any gospel other than that which was preached at the beginning, received not from man but from Christ Jesus, thou alone, in whom we have redemption through thy all holy infinitely pure and undefiled blood, the remission of our sins, who in the future shall recreate the heavens and the earth, called by thine special choice, who before hoped in Christ with all who heard the word of truth and believed, sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of the possession, for the praise of his glory, in faith in the Lord Jesus, and of love for all the saints in unceasing intercession of all the elect angels and saints of God, virgins, with all thanksgiving, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in deep knowledge of him; the eyes of our minds being enlightened, to know the hope of his calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the working of his mighty power wrought in Christ the only first born from the dead in the flesh raised above all things he made subject under his feet, we who hold him the head directly and no other, Christ Jesus our only Lord and Saviour immortal son of the immortal Father in the unity and power and bond of love of the immortal Holy Spirit our Paraclete unto the ages of the ages. Amen.

The Final Trial: Jesus Christ begotten of the Father - not made

A prayer of Isaias the Prophet.

Is. 26: 9-21

(Isaias' prophecy, which is also his prayer.)

O Lord our God, grant us peace. Out of the night my spirit waketh at dawn unto Thee, O God; for Thy commandments are a light upon the earth. Learn righteousness, all ye that dwell upon the earth. For the ungodly man hath come to an end; every one that learneth not righteousness upon the earth shall not be able to do truth; let the ungodly be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord. O Lord, Thine arm is lifted up, and they knew it not; but when they know it, let them be put to shame. Zeal shall lay hold upon an untaught people, and now fire shall devour the adversaries. O Lord our God, bestow Thy peace upon us, for Thou hast given all things unto us. O Lord our God, take us for Thy possession. O Lord, we know no other beside Thee; we call upon Thy name. But the dead shall not see life, neither shall physicians raise them up; therefore hast Thou brought wrath upon them, and hast slain them, and hast taken every man of them away. Bring more evils upon them, Lord; bring more evils upon them that are glorious upon the earth. O Lord, in trouble we remembered Thee; with small affliction was Thy chastening with us. And as a woman in travail draweth nigh to be delivered, and crieth out in her travail, so have we become in the presence of Thy beloved. We have conceived, O Lord, because of Thy fear, and have suffered pangs, and have brought forth the spirit of Thy salvation, which we have wrought upon the earth. We shall not fail, but all those that dwell upon the earth shall fail. The dead shall arise, and they that are in the tomb shall awake, and they that are upon the earth shall rejoice. For the dew which Thou sendest is healing unto them; but the land of the ungodly shall perish. Go, my people, enter into thine inner chamber, shut thy door, hide thyself for a little season [during the Great Tribulation, hidden in mountains and dens and caves of the earth - there is NO secret rapture which is only an heretical apostate Lurianic Talmudic Judaic doctrine], until the anger of the Lord shall pass away.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

And see: The Abomination of Desolation

Note in the below that this is a description of the evil that precedes the Antichrist who is the Abomination of Desolation. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ then comes after the reign of Antichrist has proceeded for a while. Antichrist, his reign and the False Prophet and all their followers are then destroyed by the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven with all His elect Angels and sent to hell forever. The saints will then reign with Our Lord Jesus Christ at their head on earth forever.

Palestine, which is properly the Holy Land for in it walked God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, and there He allowed Himself to be sacrificed for the salvation of those who profess Him from the heart and with the mouth, is a miniature of all the evil that has come upon the earth and there will the final evil be concentrated in its fullness and rule from there for a short time.

From: The Abomination of Desolation

Writing in the second century, St. Hippolytus wrote the following about the evil that will abound before the coming of Antichrist:

The temples of God will be like houses, and there will be overturnings of the churches everywhere. The Scriptures will be despised, and everywhere they will sing the songs of the adversary. Fornications, and adulteries, and perjuries will fill the land; sorceries, and incantations, and divinations will follow after these with all force and zeal. And, on the whole, from among those who profess to be Christians will rise up then false prophets, false apostles, impostors, mischief-makers, evil-doers, liars against each other, adulterers, fornicators, robbers, grasping, perjured, mendacious, hating each other. The shepherds will be like wolves; the priests will embrace falsehood; the monks will lust after the things of the world; the rich will assume hardness of heart; the rulers will not help the poor; the powerful will cast off all pity; the judges will remove justice from the just, and, blinded with bribes, they will call in unrighteousness.

St. Hippolytus of Rome, Treatise on the end of the world and on Antichrist

My Blog List

Baptism

Traditional Catholic Prayers: Baptism

MATTHEW 28

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The resurrection of Christ. His commission to his disciples.

1 And *in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week,

18 And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.

19 *Going, therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.

"Consummation of the world," - the end of this age of grace and the beginning of the eternal ages with Christ reigning visibly. This is the end of the eschaton and the beginning of the eternal recreated heavens and the earth and will begin when Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ returns from heaven in the same flesh He rose with and ascended into the third heaven with, seated at the right hand of the Father. His return will be with all of His elect angels. He will raise and judge all men in the flesh and then recreate the heavens and the earth, which in that state will last that way for eternity. There will NOT be any sin in the new heavens and earth, so prepare now by confessing the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and be baptized as commanded above and shown how to baptize below and live Holy and Godly lives in sincerity and humility and meekness waiting for the Lord when He returns so that we are not like the five foolish virgins but are like the five wise virgins.

____________________

*

1: A.D. 30.; Mark xvi. 1.; John xx. 1.

19: Mark xvi. 15.

====================

Method of Baptism

From the Didache (49 A.D. Council of Jerusalem):

Chapter 7. Concerning Baptism.

And concerning baptism, baptize this way: Having first said all these things, baptize the one to be baptized into Jesus Christ in "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," in running water. But if you have no running water, baptize into other water [still water]; and if you cannot do so in cold water, do so in warm. But if you have neither, pour out water three times upon the head onto the one to be baptized saying at that time "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." But before the baptism, if possible, let the baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whoever else can; but you shall order the baptized [when there is time] to fast one or two days before.

Baptism can and should always be performed immediately when there is danger of death of the one to be baptized. For instance, impending martyrdom or possible death causing illness.

Israel is the Nation of the Antichrist = Dajjal: Totally reject Dajjal and instead Come to Christ and receive the water of life

The Muhammad of the Almighty Triune God of The Final Trial would not stand in the way of Muslims coming to Our Lord Jesus Christ and being baptized in Him as the Injeel commands. The Mohammed of Ahmadiyya is the same as the Mohammot of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and both are antichrists and contradict the clear commands of God in the Injeel and Taurat and Quran.

Noble Quran

003.045 Behold! the angels said: "O Mary! God giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and the Hereafter and of (held in honor by the company of the prophets and saints) those nearest to God;

003.046 "He shall speak to the people in childhood and in maturity. And he shall be (adhered to by the company) of the righteous."

003.047 She said: "O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man hath touched me?" He said: "Even so: God createth what He willeth: When He hath decreed a plan, He but saith to it, 'Be,' and it is!

003.048 "And God will teach him [Jesus Christ] the Book [alkitaba = all sacred writing from God Most High] and Wisdom [hikma = sophia = uncreated wisdom of God one with His Holy Spirit], the Law [Taurat fulfilled in the Gospel of Jesus Christ] and the Gospel [of Jesus Christ],"

As the Word of God Jesus Christ willed to learn in His Incarnation what He already possessed and knew prior to His Incarnation as part of His kenosis (emptying out of Himself and taking upon Himself our nature while in no way losing anything of what He already was as God by nature and Son of God as the Second Person of the undivided Trinity) and as an example to us of how we in humility must follow God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Baptism

The Final Trial: Traditional Catholic Prayers: Baptism

Traditional Catholic Prayers: Baptism

MATTHEW 28

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The resurrection of Christ. His commission to his disciples.

1 And *in the end of the sabbath, when it began to dawn towards the first day of the week,

18 And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.

19 *Going, therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.

"Consummation of the world," - the end of this age of grace and the beginning of the eternal ages with Christ reigning visibly. This is the end of the eschaton and the beginning of the eternal recreated heavens and the earth and will begin when Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ returns from heaven in the same flesh He rose with and ascended into the third heaven with, seated at the right hand of the Father. His return will be with all of His elect angels. He will raise and judge all men in the flesh and then recreate the heavens and the earth, which in that state will last that way for eternity. There will NOT be any sin in the new heavens and earth, so prepare now by confessing the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and be baptized as commanded above and shown how to baptize below and live Holy and Godly lives in sincerity and humility and meekness waiting for the Lord when He returns so that we are not like the five foolish virgins but are like the five wise virgins.

____________________

*

1: A.D. 30.; Mark xvi. 1.; John xx. 1.

19: Mark xvi. 15.

====================

Method of Baptism

From the Didache (49 A.D. Council of Jerusalem):

Chapter 7. Concerning Baptism.

And concerning baptism, baptize this way: Having first said all these things, baptize the one to be baptized into Jesus Christ in "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit," in running water. But if you have no running water, baptize into other water [still water]; and if you cannot do so in cold water, do so in warm. But if you have neither, pour out water three times upon the head onto the one to be baptized saying at that time "in the name of Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." But before the baptism, if possible, let the baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whoever else can; but you shall order the baptized [when there is time] to fast one or two days before.

Baptism can and should always be performed immediately when there is danger of death of the one to be baptized. For instance, impending martyrdom or possible death causing illness.

___________________________________________

See this for why Jesus Christ must be confessed as the Holy Word and Son of God: The Final Trial: Mary - revered by both Christians and Muslims as the vessel through whom God made the Word, Jesus Christ, Incarnate

The Muslim feast of Eid only commemorates the typological sacrifice by Abraham of Issac. That prefigured the final and only Supreme Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on His Most Holy Cross. It is only by the Sacrifice of Christ on His Cross that we are saved. Jesus Christ commanded, not suggested, that we be baptized; echoing the rest of the Church Fathers, St. Augustine noted that if someone could not be baptized even though they wanted it and did everything they could to be baptized in the water in name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, then their confession of faith is enough for their salvation. But no where are we allowed to refuse baptism.

All Muslims and everyone who will, are invited and encouraged to come to the water of life now and be baptized in the water and in the Spirit in name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and receive Communion.

For Noah and Abraham as Prophecies of Baptism in Our Only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ see:

Traditional Catholic Prayers: THE TWELVE PROPHECIES - The Second Prophesy: Genesis 5: 32; 6; 7: 6: 11-14, 18-21, 23-24; 8: 1-3, 6-12, 15-21

Traditional Catholic Prayers: THE TWELVE PROPHECIES - The Third Prophesy: Genesis 22: 1-19

There is no evolution, to be baptized in Our Only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ one must believe in the truth of literal Creation by God and no pantheistic syncretism with deistic design and the rest of pagan evolutionary theory.

Traditional Catholic Prayers: THE TWELVE PROPHECIES - The First Prophesy: Genesis 1: 1-31; 2: 1-2

And see the rest of the Baptismal Prophecies. They are a must.

For all Jews wishing to convert sincerely from the heart to Jesus Christ now, here is a prayer based on the biblical Hebrew of the prophets of the Old Testament and the Septuagint Greek of the Old Testament and the New Testament and Arabic.

(The Arabic, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, means the same as God Almighty, or 'O Theos 'O Pantocrator, in Septuagint Greek.)

In the below “Dam (Blood) Kadosh (Holy) bet Yeshua ha Maschiach (Jesus Christ) kanawn anawim (have mercy on Your faithful [those who turn to God by the shed Blood of Christ on Calvary])” is asking for God's forgiveness by the shed Holy Blood of Christ – which is the only forgiveness there is from God for sin.

Go here: Jews called in Christ: Begun in 2002, judged illegal 2004, Israel’s apartheid wall goes on regardless | Jews for Justice for Palestinians

And then be baptized in Christ - see above: Baptism.

_________________________________________________________________________

Palestine Cry: The Justice of God: Parousia of Jesus Christ Our Lord: The BROAD way to hell - forever.

The Final Trial: The Final Trial: The Truth: The coming of the Antichrist, ad-Dajjal

The Illuminati: Mani and Manichaeism - blasphemous heresy

The Illuminati: Bahai - The Illuminati - Masonic Colonialism of the Holy Land

The Illuminati: Gnosticism, Occult, Masonry, Sabbateanism, Frankist--followers of Jacob Frank, Illuminati, Rosicrucianism and Mormonism are all rooted in and intertwined in the same Diabolic paganism

Israel is the Nation of the Antichrist = Dajjal: The Holy War - The Review of Religions

Israel is the Nation of the Antichrist = Dajjal: 18 Temple Benedictions: 6 + 6 + 6 = Temple of the Antichrist

The Illuminati: You'll never think the same way again. . . The Revelation

The Final Trial: No to all Terrorists

Traditional Catholic Prayers and The Justice of God

Reason for the Antichrist's - Dajjal's - war on the Noble Sanctuary

Reason for the Antichrist's - Dajjal's - war on the Noble Sanctuary
Reason for the Antichrist's - Dajjal's - war on the Noble Sanctuary | defilement of the Noble Sanctuary - click on picture

Parousia of Jesus Christ Our Lord

See:





The Promise of His coming. His commands to prepare and be worthy.

Statement of what is happening in the world in connection with the Second Coming of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Nuzul i Isa - Qiyamah, the Parousia of Jesus Christ Our Lord.

Rv:22:7 Behold I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the words of the prophecy of this book.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Reuters: Rockets hit south Beirut after Hezbollah vows Syria victory


The below shows how the Media is easing Russia and Syria into ousting Assad and destroying a united Syria. The Lebanese are caught in a hard place in between all of this. The dismantlement began decades ago when Gamel Abdel Nasser and the shortlived United Arab Republic (1958-1961) were rebuffed from within the Arab community for its sectarian pro-Socialist Stance. Egypt and Sudan and Iraq and Syria were effectively sundered. Nasser's forming of the PLO for Palestinian Liberation from the Zionist occupiers in 1964 has since then met with similar internal and external destruction in a number of ways. The Achilles heel in all of this is the Secular Socialist, that is Russian Communist Socialist underpinning with all real support from Russia never carried through. Russia will not risk nuclear war with the United States. Not then and not now.
Egypt Under Nasser, United Arab Republic
The Suez Crisis enhanced the prestige of Egypt. The canal remained nationalized, Egypt was at last free from British control, and Israel was forced for the first time to withdraw from Arab territory. Syria sought to unite with Egypt, and Nasser agreed to the formation of the United Arab Republic (UAR) in 1958. Syrian enthusiasm cooled, however, as it became apparent that Egypt would dominate the UAR. The UAR suffered a further blow when a new regime in Iraq, which had just overthrown the pro-Western monarchy there in July 1958, chose not to enter the union. Newly independent Sudan also chose not to join the UAR. In July 1961, when the Egyptian government moved toward an openly socialist policy, Syria’s business leaders turned against the union. Syria seceded from the UAR soon thereafter. 
Nasser was chagrined at the breakup of the union with Syria. Nevertheless, he retained the name of the UAR for his country and looked for other allies in the Arab world. In 1962 he set up a one-party political system in the UAR, with his Arab Socialist Union the sole party. When Algeria gained independence from France in 1962, the UAR hailed its new regime. When a military coup ousted the ruler of Yemen and established the Yemen Arab Republic in 1962, the UAR recognized the republican regime and sent troops to aid it against royalist forces, which Saudi Arabia supported. This action led to a prolonged proxy war with Saudi Arabia that tied up thousands of the best UAR troops. In 1963 coups in Iraq and Syria led by army officers in the Arab socialist Baath Party installed pro-UAR governments, but talks to bring these countries into the UAR broke down. 
Although his attempts to create a political union failed, Nasser promoted Arab unity in other ways. When Israel threatened to draw water from the Jordan River for its national irrigation project, Nasser convened the Arab heads of state to develop a common policy against Israel. In 1964 he facilitated the birth of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), created to provide an organized channel for Palestinian nationalism. In 1966 Nasser made a mutual defense pact with Syria, hoping to moderate the stance of the radical wing of the Syrian Baath Party that had taken power. Instead, the pact emboldened Syria to engage Israel in aerial clashes in April 1967. Israel shot down six Syrian fighter jets and warned Syria against future attacks. 
The Soviet government warned the UAR that Israel was concentrating its troops for an invasion of Syria. The Israelis denied the warning, which later proved false. Nevertheless, Nasser responded by sending troops into the Sinai Peninsula, which had been demilitarized after the 1956 war. He called for the removal of UN forces from the Gaza Strip and the Red Sea port of Sharm al-Sheikh, where they had been stationed since the end of the 1956 war. After reoccupying these buffer zones, the UAR announced that it would reimpose its blockade of the Strait of Tiran, preventing Israeli ships from entering or leaving the Gulf of Aqaba. The UAR press and radio also made threats against Israel.

Syria Live Blog - Al Jazeera Blogs: "Syria about 6 hours ago
Syria's opposition spokesman lashed out on Sunday against a statement that Assad's is ready to take part in a Geneva peace conference, reiterating the National Coalition's position that any settlement must exclude the embattled leader.

"We are ready to enter into negotiations that are aimed towards transferring power to the people, towards a democratic transition. And that of course means Assad cannot be a part of Syria in the future," Louay Safi told reporters.

Meeting in Istanbul since Thursday, the deeply divided Coalition has yet to reach an official position on US-Russian peace initiative dubbed Geneva 2.

"In principle, our position was to welcome the international [peace] initiative," Safi said.

But "the regime has yet to state a position on its willingness to leave" power, he added.

"We want the regime to be willing to accept Geneva as a framework for negotiations aimed at a transition of power and democratic change."

[AFP]"


Russia Says Syria Will Attend Geneva Peace Talks




MOSCOW — The Syrian government has agreed to participate in an international peace conference coordinated by Russia and the United States, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

“We note with satisfaction that Damascus has confirmed its readiness in principle to participate in an international conference in the interest of the Syrians themselves finding a political path to a settlement of the conflict that has been devastating for the country and the region,” the spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, said in a statement.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and Secretary of State John Kerry agreed during a meeting in Moscow earlier this month to pull together the peace conference, with Russia responsible for bringing the government of President Bashar al-Assad to the table and the Americans focused on securing the participation of the Syrian opposition. The meeting is expected next month.
But even as Mr. Lukashevich said the Syrian government had committed to participating in the talks, he cited “complicating factors” that were undermining efforts to broker an end to the violence.
He said some steps by the West at the United Nations in New York and in Geneva were counterproductive.
“It’s regrettable that despite our persistent appeals to some partners, after the Russian-American initiative has already been announced, a decision on Syria was imposed on the U.N. General Assembly, which was lopsided in its character and contradicting to the consensus being formed in the world in favor of political settlement in this country,” he said.
Last week, the 193-member General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution calling for a political transition to end the civil war in Syria, putting the burden on Mr. Assad’s government to stop the killing.
The United Nations’ top human rights official, Navi Pillay, has repeated called for urgent action to halt the violence in Syria, underscoring the level of brutality of the conflict, calling for war crimes investigations on both sides and monitoring the rising death toll and refugee crisis. More than 80,000 people are believed to have died in the conflict, and hundreds of thousands of refugees have crowded into bordering nations.
But Mr. Lukashevich called the proposed peace conference “a real chance to stop the bloodshed and suffering of the Syrians and ensure a peaceful, democratic future for Syria.”
“This opportunity should not be missed,” he said.
A spokesman for Syria’s main political opposition group responded to the announcement that the government would attend by saying there were no signs that it was really willing to produce “a peaceful political solution.”
The spokesman, Khaled Saleh, speaking on the sidelines of a three-day meeting of the opposition in Istanbul, said, “When any meaningful negotiation must start with good-will gestures, the regime continues using chemical weapons and heavily engages Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters on the ground.”
The Syrian opposition was meeting to elect a new leader and formulate its positions before the expected conference in Geneva . Mr. Kerry will fly to Paris on Monday to meet with Mr. Lavrov to discuss the Geneva meeting, an American official said.
Earlier this week, leading members of the group, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, and top foreign affairs officials, including Mr. Kerry,held an 11-country meeting in Amman, Jordan, on the deteriorating situation in Syria.
At the start of the talks in Istanbul, members of the opposition group expressed hesitation about attending the Geneva meeting, and they asked for clarification on what to expect before committing to it, while emphasizing that such talks might be futile unless Mr. Assad was removed.
“We do not have too much illusion,” said Ahmed Kamel, a member of the coalition. “We know the regime, we know Assad, and we know that he would never quit power without force.”
Russia supports Mr. Assad’s continued leadership, saying his presence would stabilize any transition. Members of the opposition group insist that he must not be a part of any future government.
“The international community says that they can remove Assad from power; so does the U.S.,” Mr. Kamel said on the sidelines of the discussions. “We just need to stop massacres until then.”
The meetings are intended to enlarge the 63-seat national coalition, the largest opposition group, with more members from the liberated areas inside Syria.
Disagreements, however, remained on how to secure representation by gender and ethnic and religious backgrounds, and how to establish trust for newer, little-known candidates.
The opposition group has been without a president since Sheik Moaz al-Khatib resigned the post amid political infighting in March.
At the start of the talks, Sheik Khatib put forward his own 16-step proposal for a political transition to a post-Assad government. Among other things, it would absolve all combatants involved in “legal military action” from prosecution and allow Mr. Assad and 500 people of his choosing, along with their families, to seek refuge in any country willing to welcome them.
Sheik Khatib’s plan, published on his official Facebook page, would retain some members of the current government. Under it, Mr. Assad would hand power to Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa or Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi within 30 days of accepting the plan.
Subsequent measures include dissolving Parliament and transferring legislative powers to an agreed-upon candidate to handle the transition. Sheik Khatib added that the current government would continue to govern for 100 days, restructure the security and military apparatus, and release political prisoners.
But it is not clear whether any other members of the opposition coalition will support the plan. “No one listened to him when he was still head of the coalition; why would they listen to him now?” said an activist contacted via Skype in the suburbs of Damascus, the Syrian capital, who declined to give her name.
And it is unlikely to appeal to the rebels fighting Mr. Assad’s army and its allies on the ground, who say they want Assad loyalists to pay for their actions.
Asi, an activist who works at a makeshift hospital in Qusayr, a Syrian town where clashes are raging between government forces and rebels, wrote on his Facebook page: “This pathetic nobody Moaz, the dangerous, is calling for Assad to leave with 500 individuals and wants to absolve soldiers. You donkey, you’re going to be tried before Assad, God willing.” (The word for “dangerous” in Arabic is similar to Sheik Khatib’s surname.)
Even if the plan did win support, Mr. Assad himself has repeatedly emphasized in televised interviews that he has no plans to leave Syria, and refuses to step down before presidential elections — which he plans to enter — are held next year.
Sheik Khatib portrayed his proposal as a response to ideas by Russia and the United States for a political solution, and a way to “prevent the decay of Syria, its people, its land, its economy.”
Reporting was contributed by Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul; Hania Mourtada from Beirut, Lebanon; and Michael R. Gordon from Tel Aviv.



Reuters: Rockets hit south Beirut after Hezbollah vows Syria victory

Rockets hit south Beirut after Hezbollah vows Syria victory




Two men inspect their damage house after two rockets hit their area in a Beirut suburbs May 26, 2013. REUTERS-Mohammed Azakir

BEIRUT | Sun May 26, 2013 4:43pm EDT

(Reuters) - Two rockets hit a Shi'ite Muslim district of Beirut on Sunday, driving home the risk of spillover from Syria's civil war, after the head of Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah said it would keep fighting on the Syrian government's side until victory.

It was the first attack to apparently target Hezbollah's stronghold in the south of the Lebanese capital since the outbreak of the two-year conflict in neighboring Syria, which has sharply heightened Lebanon's own sectarian tensions.

The United States and Russia have proposed an international peace conference to douse a civil war that has killed more than 80,000 people, driven 1.5 million Syrians as refugees abroad and raised the specter of sectarian bloodshed in the wider region.
Syria's government will "in principle" attend the talks tentatively set for June in Geneva and believes it will be an opportunity to resolve the crisis, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said during a visit to Baghdad on Sunday.
But in an apparent rebuff of Western calls for President Bashar al-Assad to cede power as part of any deal on transition, Moualem said: "No power on earth can decide on the future of Syria. Only the Syrian people have the right to do so."
The U.S. and Russian foreign ministers, striving to refloat a plan for a political transition in Syria, were due to meet in Paris on Monday to work out the details.
Whether the exiled Syrian civilian opposition will take part in the envisaged peace talks - and be able to negotiate effectively, given their internal divisions and shaky rapport with rebels inside Syria - remains in doubt.
The United States has been prodding Assad's opponents to unite before the conference. But the Islamist-dominated coalition has been hamstrung by power struggles during talks going on in Istanbul aimed at broadening its representation and electing a cohesive leadership.
The talks stalled on Sunday in a factional dispute over proposals to dilute Qatar's influence on rebel forces, with Saudi Arabia angling to play a greater role now that Iranian-backed Hezbollah was openly fighting for Assad.
Some observers have viewed the commitment by Hezbollah to Assad's cause as indicating the Lebanese movement does not see the United States weighing in against it. Asked whether the militia's role might alter Washington's reluctance to arm the rebels, a spokesman for President Barack Obama said on Sunday:
"The calculus that the president is making is something that is regularly reviewed and updated ... Our involvement and our assistance to the opposition there has steadily increased."
European Union foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss British and French calls for them to ease an arms embargo in order to help the rebels obtain weapons. Some other EU states oppose the move, at least until after any peace talks.
CONFLICT AFFLICTING LEBANON
Syria's conflagration has polarized Lebanon, a country of four million, in whose 15-year civil war to 1990 Syria was a major player and where Syrian troops remained until 2005.
Lebanese Sunni Muslims support the mainly Sunni insurgency against Assad, and Shi'ite Hezbollah stands by the president, whose minority Alawite sect derives from Shi'ite Islam.
In Sunday's attack, one rocket landed in a car sales yard next to a busy road junction in south Beirut's Chiah neighborhood, and the other struck an apartment several hundred meters away, wounding five people, residents said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Brigadier Selim Idris, head of Syria's Western-backed rebel military command, told Al-Arabiya Television that his forces had not carried out the attack.
He urged rebels to keep their conflict inside Syria.
But another Syrian rebel, Ammar al-Wawi, told Lebanon's LBC Television the attack was a warning to authorities in Beirut to restrain Hezbollah. "In coming days we will do more than this. This is a warning to Hezbollah and the Lebanese government to keep Hezbollah's hands off Syria," he said.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had declared on Saturday night that his thousands of fighters were committed to the conflict against what he called radical Sunni Islamist rebels in Syria, whatever the cost.
"We will continue to the end of the road. We accept this responsibility and will accept all sacrifices and expected consequences of this position," he said in a televised speech on Saturday evening. "We will be the ones who bring victory."
Though numbering only in the thousands compared to the tens of thousands of troops and many more irregular Syrian militiamen that Assad can draw on, Hezbollah's fighters, seasoned in urban warfare against Israel as recently as 2006, are a potent force.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius condemned the violent spillover into Lebanon. "The war in Syria must not become the war in Lebanon," he told reporters in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Until recently, Nasrallah insisted that Hezbollah had not sent guerrillas to fight alongside Assad's forces.
Syrian government forces reinforced by Hezbollah launched an onslaught last week on Qusair, a rebel-controlled town close to the Lebanese border that rebels have used as a crucial supply corridor for weapons coming into the country.
For Assad, taking Qusair would help keep Damascus, the capital, connected to the Alawite coastal heartland and also hinder links between the rebel-held north and south of Syria.
Lebanese authorities, haunted by Lebanon's own civil war and torn by the same kind of sectarian rifts as Syria, have pursued a policy of "dissociation" from the Syrian turmoil.
But Hezbollah is arguably a stronger force than Beirut's government, which has been unable to stem the flow into Syria of Sunni gunmen who support the rebels or of Hezbollah fighters who back Assad. It has also struggled to absorb nearly half a million refugees coming the other way to escape the fighting.
At least 25 people have been killed in Tripoli in the north of Lebanon over the last week in Sunni-Alawite street fighting triggered in part by the battle for Qusair across the frontier.
In Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, residents said three rockets landed on Sunday close to the mainly Shi'ite border town of Hermel, without causing injuries. Rebels have targeted Hermel from inside Syria several times in recent weeks.
Nasrallah's speech was condemned by former prime minister Saad al-Hariri, a Sunni who said that Hezbollah, set up by Iran in the 1980s to fight Israeli occupation forces in south Lebanon, had abandoned anti-Israeli "resistance" in favor of sectarian conflict in Syria.
"The resistance is ending by your hand and your will," Hariri said in a statement. "The resistance announced its political and military suicide in Qusair."
Hariri is backed by Saudi Arabia, which along with other Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab monarchies has strongly supported the uprising against the Iranian-backed Assad.
The extent to which Hezbollah's support for Assad has alienated Sunni Arabs who admired its battles against Israel was demonstrated on Sunday when the foreign minister of Sunni-ruled Bahrain used unusually strong language to call Nasrallah a "terrorist" and said it was a "religious duty" to stop him.
(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Istanbul, Laila Bassam and Erika Solomon in Beirut, Ahmed Rasheed and Suadad al-Salhy in Baghdad and John Irish in Abu Dhabi; Writing by Mark Heinrich; Editing by Will Waterman and Alastair Macdonald)

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